The Queen's Necklace

The Queen's Necklace was published immediately following the French Revolution of 1848 and is said to have been one of the first novels to comment on the end of French monarchy. The story is loosely based on the Affair of the Diamond Necklace of the 1780s in which Marie Antoinette was accused of defrauding the crown jewelers. Louis XV commissioned the making of an exquisite diamond necklace for his mistress, Madame du Barry, at the cost of nearly two million livres. Louis insisted that the necklace surpass all others in magnificence, and the jewelers took several years to complete the project. During the time the diamonds were being accumulated and paid for, Louis XV died of smallpox and Madame du Barry was banished from court. The successor, Louis XVI, offered the finished necklace to his wife, Marie Antoinette, as a present. Marie refused. Devastated and in tremendous debt, the jewelers were unable to sell the necklace and were forced out of business. A few months later, a con artist and his lover devised a plan to obtain the necklace by forging letters from Marie Antoinette to Cardinal de Rohan who was seeking the Queen's favor at the time. Eventually, the ruse was found out, but the public grew to have disdain for Marie Antoinette's excessive grandeur and the royalty's elaborate lifestyles.  The French Revolution just beginning coupled with the subject matter of the novel made the book a powerful example of the French people's disillusionment with monarchy.